RICKY Gervais has revealed he was suffering from the ‘worst illness of my life’ and thought he was going to die.

The comedian and actor (61) suffered intense stomach pain, sickness and diarrhea over the course of eight terrifying hours.

Taking to Twitter in his trademark style, he posted: “I’m not feeling well today. In fact, I’d say I’ve just lived through the worst 8 hours of sickness of my life. Severe stomach pains, vomiting every time I move, (but only small bits of bile), hot sweats and chills, oh, and I really want to know who planted the 12 sauce bombs in my a**e.”

Fans immediately diagnosed him with a nasty norovirus that made the rounds as they wished him well.

One commented: “Hope you feel better soon, you are one of a kind and an inspirational figure!”

Another posted: “Ricky! Get well soon! Sending positive vibes for a speedy recovery!”

A third said: “Oh honey that’s terrible! Sounds like food poisoning to Ricky. Drink lots of water and stay in bed. Probably from the trip or something. Take care.”

Fortunately, the worst of it was short-lived and Ricky told fans he was on the mend.

He wrote: “Update: I’m out of bed and I’ve had a bath. Feeling weak and anxious that I’ve wasted a whole day, but it’s a huge improvement to believe that I’m definitely going to die.

“Thank you for all your good wishes.”

Earlier this year, Ricky teased that he was “going to die soon” when discussing his stand-up show Supernature on The One Show.

Host Alex Jones asked the After Life creator about certain jokes about his wealth and was unprepared for Ricky’s response.

She asked: “By that you mention, your wealth is quite a lot and it can be very uncomfortable at times, but the audience absolutely laps it up.

“So how do you manage to set it up so well?”

Ricky replied: “Because they know what I do. They know I take the micky out of it and I go there, that’s an elephant in the room.”

He added: “I go out in bad jeans, drink out of a can of beer. I think because we’re clowns we have to be with the audience, laugh at the king and I do it two ways.

“I let them peek behind the curtain and I tell them all the terrible things that happen to me, the terrible tweets, the terrible press.

“I also do it by telling them they’re better off than me. I’m fat and old and I’m going to die soon.”

Taken back by his response, Alex shot back, “You’re not,” before Ricky said with a straight face, “I am.”

“You’re not, you’re not,” Alex insisted as Ricky chimed in, “I took it off, didn’t I?”

Continuing on the subject, Ricky explained: “I’m close to death every day, everyone is a bigger percentage than the rest of your life and we don’t know what percentage it’s going to be.

“If I die tomorrow, today was 50 percent.”

Co-host Jermaine Jenas was taken aback by the conversation: “I didn’t see that coming, it’s not a part of the show that I thought was going to happen.”

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